Hay Festival Cartagena 2026

The characters of El cielo está vacío, by Sara Jaramillo Klinkert (Colombia), and Mamita, by Gustavo Rodríguez (Peru), are, in their own way, examining history in order to strengthen and understand their identity. Rodríguez pays homage to his mother and grandmothers, telling their story and exploring family memory. Jaramillo Klinkert proposes a rite of passage, in which a young Colombian woman who has travelled to London suffers from the vulnerabilities of the migrant, finding herself in a dependent position in an asymmetrical relationship; a work about loneliness and the loss of youth. They will talk to the journalist Catalina Villa.

We explore the cartographies that connect the Global South with journalist and writer Nesrine Malik (Sudan/UK) in a conversation where she shares personal experiences far removed from hegemonic narratives, because there is much to learn from the diversity of narratives from the Global South. In conversation with Camila Osorio.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

The iconic novel by Roberto Burgos Cantor, La ceiba de la memoria, has recently been republished by Himpar Editores. Óscar Daniel Campo, the editor of this version, will talk to Muriel Vanegas about the book, which won the Casa de la Américas Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Rómulo Gallegos Prize. This classic novel tells the story of the Benkos Biohó insurrection, which resulted in the foundation of the first haven for fugitive slaves. A story about resistance to slavery and war; a story that is a call to the cultivation of a more plural, collective memory.

Free event for the university community

In Noche negra, Pilar Quintana (Colombia) returns to the untamed and exuberant Colombian Pacific that she portrayed so convincingly in the acclaimed novel La perra. In her latest book, the protagonist finds herself alone for four days in a setting that is both terrifying and fascinating. She feels threatened not only by nature, but by the people around her. As well as her work as a writer, Quintana has recently edited the second issue of the Biblioteca de Escritoras Colombianas. She talks to Pilar Reyes.

Andrew O'Hagan (United Kingdom) talks to Elvira Liceaga about his latest book, Caledonian Road, the «definitive novel» about post-Brexit Great Britain. A novel with incisive insight into current social structures that builds a net of diverse characters that act as a mirror of British society.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

As well as being three of Latin America’s most renowned writers, Leila Guerriero Argentina), Leonardo Padura (Cuba) and Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia) are all El País columnists. They will talk to Javier Moreno Barber, exdirector of the Spanish newspaper, about how they tackle writing, why it is so important for the reputation of a newspaper to have high profile columnists, and how they contribute to maintaining the narrative, cultural and social bridge between Latin America and Spain.

Mia Couto (Mozambique) is the first Portuguese language writer to win the PEN/Nabokov Prize. He became well known for works such as Sleepwalking Land and the Sands of the Emperor trilogy. He has received many distinctions, including the Camões Prize, the Guadalajara Book Fair Award for Literature in Romance Languages, and he was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. His most recent book, O mapeador do ausências, is his most autobiographical to date, telling the story of a Mozambican intellectual who returns to his home city, where he confronts memories of his childhood and his father, while he meets a magnetic woman with whom he shares a tangled past. In conversation with Pilar Quintana.

Mia Couto will participate virtually

Simultaneous interpretation from Portuguese to Spanish available

Frank Báez (Dominican Republic) and Cristina Bendek (Colombia) are from different places, and their writing too occupies different latitudes — poetry and non-fiction in the first case, novels and essays in the case of Bendek. But their creative processes all take place by the shores of the same sea: the Caribbean, with images and topics bathed by the same sun. Bajo otras luces, by Báez, is the portrait of a region and a book about exile, a poet’s personal view of a territory. Los cristales de la sal, by Bendek, talks about returning to one’s roots, to San Andrés, where the protagonist starts to question her identity and relationship with the island. In conversation with Yeniter Poleo.

The Brazilian writer, publisher and translator Joca Reiners Terron has written the novel O morte e o meteoro. In it, the last members of the Kaajapukugi tribe, barely surviving in the heart of the Amazon, are sent to Oaxaca, in Mexico, as political refugees. Just days before they arrive, the anthropologist responsible for the transfer dies, and then begins a story full of mystery, overflowing imagination and adventures. In conversation with Valentina Rodríguez Ayola.

With Morir en la arena Leonardo Padura returns with another masterful description of his native Cuba. He is the chronicler of a lost generation, one that has endured half a century of difficulties, and in his book Havana becomes another character, a witness to the passage of time and wasted promises. Rodolfo, marked by the patricide committed by his brother and reminders of the war in Angola, has recently retired, and intimacy with his sister-in-law, an old love, begins. With his brother, terminally ill, leaving prison and returning home, echoes of the past, long buried, haunt the present. Padura will talk about the book with the writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia).

El hijo del hombre, by Juan Esteban Constaín, is a literary and historical essay in which the author examines early Christianity and its profound impact. This writer, whose very personal style is full of anecdotes, will talk to Pablo Arango, Philosophy lecturer at the University of Caldas, about this book on classical antiquity and how Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

There is a Caribbean beyond the postcards, beyond the beautiful beaches bathed in sun. This is a region with a colonial history, whose exiles speak, just as those who have remained do. It is a region that is open to new arrivals, but private behind closed doors. Bajo otras luces is the Caribbean as seen by the Dominican Frank Báez: an essay about what it means to write there, and how it is seen from far off. The personal view of an essayist, a poet and a Caribbean. In conversation with Graciela Franco.

Las costuras invisibles deals with the silenced traumas of a family, one that might stand for many Latin American families: those connected with intra-familial sexual violence. In the novel, Yeniter Poleo (Venezuela/Colombia) tells of the encounter between a granddaughter and grandmother. The domestic becomes the political, and what started as an ordinary weekend becomes a story that links feminism, memory and violence. The journalist and writer is also the author of La ciudad vencida, set during the Caracazo episodes in Venezuela, a time of great repression that left hundreds dead. In conversation with Lusdary Martínez.

Here, by Richard McGuire (USA), is one of the most iconic works in the contemporary graphic novel, thanks to the originality of its narrative scheme. It tells the story of the corner of a room, and things that have happened and will happen in that space, from prehistoric times to a far future. The novel proceeds without a chronological order, and many panels contain insets with scenes from different years. Its French translation won an award at the Angouleme Comic Festival in 2016, and in 2024 it was made into a film, starring Tom Hanks, by Robert Zemeckis.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

We live as slaves to algorithms that activate our automatic pilots. An antidote to overcoming this apathy is to return to philosophy; to read the reflections and teachings of those who invite us to be critical and think for ourselves. Pablo R. Arango has done so by giving us portraits of Plato, St Augustine and Descartes in Sirvan la cicuta, crucifiquen al autómata; and Lu Beccassino has covered the Stoics, talking about love and other topics in Si nos enseñaran a amar. They will talk to journalist Isabella Atehortúa.

In Los cristales de la sal, Cristina Bendek (Colombia) shows us an intimate return: a woman leaves her Mexican exile to return to San Andrés, confronting her origins and connecting with the ancestral voice of the island. This novel was the seed of the non-fiction Hilar el ritmo, a notebook about the spiritual space that goes into literary works, and about the rhythms needed for each story, from its origin to its writing.

Gustavo Rodríguez (Peru), winner of the 2023 Alfaguara Novel Prize, pays homage to his mother and grandparents in Mamita, about family ties that reach back to the Amazon region in the 20th century, and about the cultural and social tensions of that time. This is a “postponed family duty” that has become one of the writer’s most personal and reflective novels.

Los tres mundos. La conquista de las Galias por Julio César is the highly awaited continuation of the series dedicated to Julius Caesar by Santiago Posteguillo (Spain). After the great success of the last two books in the saga, Roma soy yo and Maldita Roma, which told the story of the origins and rise of the great dictator, we now read about the conquest of a territory that is hostile to Roman interests. This historical novel also visits Egypt, and covers the exile of the Pharaoh Ptolemy XII, the father of Cleopatra. Rome, Gaul and Egypt, three worlds in which Posteguillo brings an end to his Julius Caesar cycle.

Incas, espías y astronautas es un retrato de las preocupaciones, simpatías e intereses recurrentes de Rafael Dumett (Perú). En este libro de ensayos y prosa sin ficción, mira al pasado para transitar por escenarios contrafácticos de la historia; y al mismo tiempo orienta su mirada al futuro, imaginando los obstáculos a los que se enfrentarán los primeros humanos que migren desde la Tierra a nuevos planetas. También traza un mapa de inquietudes tan erudito como personal y revela la carpintería de su oficio narrativo. De todo ello, y del éxito cosechado con novelas como El espía del Inca y El camarada Jorge y el Dragón, conversa el autor.